Second Choice
by Zamelot
Summary: It happened in homeroom, when reality hit her hard.


Second Choice

He slunk into the classroom, his hair dripping wet from his usual morning shower. It looked like he didn't have enough time to towel dry it in the least. Our homeroom teacher, Mr. Usui (The Evil), as blind as he was, still noticed him enter the classroom, despite how quiet he'd been.

"Shinomori!" Usui barked. "Why are you so late? The bell rang five minutes ago."

Aoshi looked up, his gaze cold and menacing. "I didn't have a ride," he mumbled coolly.

"What!" Did I mention he's deaf, too?

"I didn't have a ride," Aoshi repeated, his voice showing a slight tint of irritation, at having to repeat himself.

Usui shrugged and went back to his computer, mumbling under his breath about how irresponsible modern teenagers were nowadays. Aoshi dumped his books onto his desk, and plopped into his seat in front of me. Without a single word.

No "Hey, wassup" or "Good morning" or one of his secret winks followed by a little Avril Lavinge bashing. Nothing. He just sat slumped in his seat with his back to me. Here we go: restlessness. I took a chance.

"Aoshi," I tapped his shoulder. "How's it going?"

He turned slightly to glare, but when he saw it was me, his gaze softened. He turned in his seat and looked at me with his head bent back a bit.

"What's up?"

He looked positively pissed. Pissed, sad, and relieved all in one expression. I tilted my head and gazed up at him.

"Why didn't you have a ride?" I inquired.

He stiffened slightly. "Cargothitbyalawnmower," he said under and in one breath.

I blinked. "What?"

He lowered his head. "Car got hit by a lawn mower," he told me through his teeth.

When someone tells you their car got hit by a lawn mower, what do you say? Seriously. I want to know. Do you believe them or laugh in their face? I did neither.

"Can you repeat that? I could have sworn you said your car got hit by a lawn mower,"

"I did," he growled.

Jeez, who woke up on the wrong side of the bed? "Sorr-ee!" I pouted. It was my thing. Instead of looking hurt, I pout and look cute. Like a little child. Cause I swear I looked ten, not sixteen. "What's biting you?"

He looked away. "Megumi broke up with me," he murmured.

Oh. That's nice—I—I mean, that's horrible. Well, I never like Megumi anyway. She always took Aoshi for granted. Clung to him when I was around or any of his friends were, then ditched him the moment one of her friends passed by.

"How come?" I thought it was an appropriate question.

"I don't know!" he snapped. "Why do you care?"

Ouch. That hit home. When it came to stuff like this, I was hopeless. Ask me anything about Shakespeare or Lord Byron, and I'll answer you within a second. Ask me about relationships, then you'd better have a lot of patience cause you'll be waiting for an answer for a while.

"I don't," I admitted. "To be honest, I don't think she was worth your time."

Actually. I didn't say that. I said, "Because you're my friend,"

Lame.

Amazingly, it worked. He looked down at me casually. "Jimi Hendrix," he read along my sleeves. I stole this one off of Hannya. The sleeves were so long, I had to role them up seven times, and they still covered half of my hands.

I smiled. Subject changer. Oh, well, it was for the best. "Yeah. It's Hannya's,"

He took hold of my shoulder and drew me back to look at the shirt itself. "Nice,"

This draws me back to my daydreams in Biology when Aoshi is sitting next to me in homeroom and we're having an intimate conversation—

"You busy Saturday night?"

Well, in my daydreams, it was usually Friday night, but it was all the same. "No, not really, why?"

"I know a place downtown where they sell really rare live Hendrix albums. Care to join me?"

In my daydreams, when he asks me out Friday night, he's staring at me dreamily as if I was the only girl in the world, and Megumi didn't exist. Sadly, this wasn't a daydream and Megumi was right around the corner, sort of.

In reality, I was degraded as a second choice; not good enough for first. What was I to do? Shout 'No!' in his face and say 'Not until you look at me like I'm your only one!' No. What could I say? Talk about falling hard and not getting up. Daydreams were meant to be dreamed up, not lived out.

"Sure, why not?"

"Saturday night? I'll pick you up?"

"Yeah,"

So, until Megumi took him back, I'll have my chance at living as a second choice.

Then I'll tell you about it.

* * *

It seems a little choppy. ugh. oh well. 


End file.
